The Millennium Chase
by omolina100
Summary: The Millennium Puzzle has never been completed. For centuries it has remain unsolved and incomplete, patiently waiting for the one that will finally unlock the true power of darkness. Yugi Muto, a high school student unlocks the power of the Millennium Puzzle, and now struggles to comprehend the dark power that is manifesting itself into the world.
1. The Millennium Puzzle

_Darkness? You think you know darkness? You do not know darkness, little one. Oh, but you will. Very soon._

00

The puzzle was extremely complicated, even if at first sight it only seemed like the pieces clicked together. There was a reason why nobody had been able to solve it yet. True, the pieces began falling together with relative ease, but once small chunks had been assembled, it became impossible for them to fit together, tiny inconsistencies around the edges did not allow it to become whole, it was maddening for whoever tried to piece it together.

Yugi Muto was now faced with the same crossroad that had plagued so many before. The young student was desperately trying to fit the small chunks that had already been put together, but still the puzzle resisted. The gold pieces refused to take shape, no matter what was tried, no matter in what order they were built, in what way there were put together, something always interfered with the fulfillment of the puzzle.

"Another dead end" Yugi breathed. Putting the pieces back into the box and heading straight to bed, it was late enough already. "Maybe tomorrow."

Tiny droplets of water announced the coming of rain, and sure enough, as soon as Yugi's head hit the pillow, a roaring deluge came down on top of the Game Shop. Yugi slept soundly that night. It would be a long time before another of those nights came.

00

"What's in the box, shrimp?" Joey asked as he grabbed the box from Yugi's hands and looked inside.

"Don't call me that! Give it back! It's mine!"

"I know it's yours, I'm just looking at it" he answered as he kept the box out of Yugi's reach. "What's this?"

"It's a puzzle, now give it back!"

"Mmm, you know, you really shouldn't waste your time with these things, Yugi. It's pathetic. No wonder you got no friends."

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" A voice next to them called, and both of them turned to face it.

"Tea! Mind your own business!" Joey said, still not letting go of the box.

"Please Joey, just give it back!"

"Give Yugi the puzzle back, or I'm gonna knock your lights out, Wheeler!"

"Fine, fine. Not like I wanted the stupid thing anyways" Joey answered, dropping the box right in front of Tea's feet. The gold pieces went flying in all directions and Yugi scampered after them, ignoring the rest of the conversation between the two taller students. Somehow it ended on Joey leaving them alone and Tea guiding Yugi back into the classroom, where the two sat down, alone. Very few people stayed in the classroom during recess after all, and Yugi thought that they both enjoyed the peace and quiet there was during in this place.

"Thanks for helping me" Yugi told Tea in a soft voice, looking at the metal box with sad eyes. "I really didn't want him touching it."

"Don't mention it, but Yugi" Tea said. "You need to stand up for yourself, otherwise you know Joey is never going to leave you alone. Nobody will ever stop bothering you if they know you're easy pickings."

"I know" Yugi answered, looking down at the floor. "But I don't like fighting and violence... it's just not in my nature."

"Defending yourself is not being violent, Yugi. It's just that, defending yourself" Tea said, and she allowed the silence to hang for a couple of moments, taking the time to examine her classmate. "What's in the box anyways?"

"Oh, it's a puzzle! It's a memento of my Grandpa!"

"Of... your Grandpa?" Tea echoed, suddenly understanding Yugi's reaction when Joey had grabbed the box. "No wonder it's so important to you."

"My Grandpa found it in Egypt, in an expedition. He brought it to me, and he told me that whoever manages to complete this puzzle will get their wish granted!"

"A wish?"

"But... nobody has been able to finish the puzzle in 5,000 years, and I don't think I'm going to be able to..."

"That puzzle is that old?" Tea asked, wondering how in the hell that thing was not in an exhibition. "Mmm... and what are you going to wish for when you finish it?"

"He, he. That's a secret, one that nobody will ever know. At least not for now."

"Not even me?" She asked with mock hurt.

"Sorry Tea. Not even you."

00

"Stupid Tea, always getting where she doesn't belong" Joey muttered as he walked down the hallways, slowly fidgeting with the piece of the puzzle he had taken from the box. He pulled it out and looked at it curiously. It was completely golden, and surprisingly heavy for such a small piece. The little puzzle piece had an eye in the center, and an indentation on either side. It looked important, it was probably the centerpiece, Joey thought to himself. "Too bad you didn't keep a closer eye on your stuff, Yugi" he said as he casually dropped the piece out the window. He heard a tiny blip that told him that the piece had probably fallen into the swimming pool. "Meh, somebody will find that and return it... eventually."

00

Solomon watched how his grandchild worked tirelessly on the puzzle, finally getting somewhere after all these years. He heard small cries of surprise and delight coming from Yugi's room. Undoubtedly, walls that had been unsurpassed before were being torn down now.

"Yugi's making progress" he said out loud, wondering just how pleased he should be.

00

Tea had just closed the school gates when she saw Yugi from the corner of her eye. She was about to go over and say hi when she noticed the state in which she was in. Her uniform was impeccable that was to be expected from Yugi. Her light blue skirt had been perfectly ironed, her pink blouse didn't have a single smudge or crease on it. As usual the only thing that she wore aside from her school uniform was the black choker tightly wrapped around her neck. In a complete contrast, her face looked like hell. Her eyes looked red and swollen and she had dark rings under her eyes, as if she had stayed up crying all night. Tea stopped walking and waited for her to catch up, Yugi hadn't even noticed her yet.

"Yugi?"

Slowly, the smaller girl looked up, but recognition did not pass through her eyes. It was as if she had never seen her before. Without a word she brushed past her and kept walking.

00

It wasn't until lunch that Tea found out what was wrong. She saw how Yugi slowly got out her lunch, a small sandwich and bit into it a couple of times before putting it back into the bag and simply staring off at the distance. It was the first time that Tea had seen her simply doing nothing. Usually, when moments like this one occurred, she would be out with her puzzle right now.

"Yugi?" she asked, sitting next to her and looking at her intensely. "What's wrong? Why aren't you working on your puzzle?"

"It's at home" she answered in an even softer voice than usual.

"What? Why? Is it because of Joey?"

"No... I... I couldn't finish it."

"What?"

"I started working on it. It's done... except for one piece."

"But, but... It's a puzzle, right? You just place the right piece and you'll be done, won't you?"

Yugi bit her lip and shook her head.

"It's missing. The last piece isn't in the box, Tea... I looked everywhere for it, I searched all night for it... It's gone... I'll never be able to finish it."

And the moment she said that out loud fresh tears poured from her eyes. Tea was silent for a long time, not knowing what to say, until she finally found the words.

"Yugi. What piece was the one missing?"

"The centerpiece, the... the one with the eye on it" she answered. "I know I saw it yesterday. I showed it to you, didn't I?"

"Stay here" Tea firmly told her before she headed towards the school building. Without anything else to do, Yugi, hugged her knees and waited for Tea to come back, all the while struggling to keep her tears from flowing again.

00

"Where is it?"

"What?"

"Where is the puzzle piece, Wheeler?" Tea asked, angrily poking his chest with her finger.

"Hey, stop that! I don't know what you're talking about" he said as he slapped her finger away.

"Yugi's puzzle! She's missing a piece and you were the last person that took it aside from her! Where is the puzzle piece?"

"I don't know where the puzzle piece is! I didn't even pay attention to Yugi's stupid puzzle. Jeez, just leave me alone, will you?"

"Yugi's stupid puzzle is the only thing she has left from her grandfather, you idiot!" she yelled at him, stopping him in his tracks. "It's the only memento she has of him, brought all the way from Egypt! The damn thing is 5,000 years old!"

"From... Egypt?"

"That's right, and if I find out that the missing piece is somehow your fault, I'm going to make sure you get what's coming to you!"

Without another word Tea spun around on her heels and left an astonished Joey behind.

00

It wasn't exactly news, but somehow a lot of people knew that Yugi's beloved puzzle piece was missing, Tea hadn't exactly used her indoor voice when talking to Joey, and by now pretty much everybody in the classroom suspected that Joey had been the one that had lost the piece. Some said he had stolen it, some said he had dropped it, others said he had hidden it because he liked Yugi, it didn't really matter. It reached the ears of somebody that shouldn't have found out.

00

Joey could barely stand up, that guy was wiping the floor with him. He doubted he would be able to even stay conscious for much longer.

"Never thought Yugi would go... and get you to come after me, Ushio."

"Oh she didn't. I just thought I would go ahead and save some trouble for her" the huge hall monitor said before he planted a kick on Joey's side. He barely managed to cushion the blow with his hands, but that didn't make any less painful. With an evil grin he added "In fact, why don't you wait a second here, I'll be right back."

00

"Yugi" a thick, heavy voice said behind her.

"U-Ushio?" she answered, suddenly feeling even smaller than what she already was.

"I heard that there was somebody bullying you."

"What? No, there's nobody bullying me" she said, perhaps a bit too quickly.

"Mmm, I see. Come with me, there's something you need to see."

Without waiting for an answer, Ushio turned around and left the schoolyard, and Yugi found herself following him. He didn't look like the type that would hit a girl, after all. He might be mean, but even he had standards, right?

What she saw did little to reinforce the idea she had of him.

Joey was lying in a crumpled heap on the ground, his face and forehead bruised, his clothing torn in so many places.

"Joey!" she screamed as she ran to his side, momentarily forgetting all the troubles that had plagued her for the day. "Ushio... did you do this to him?"

"That's right, he took something that was yours, so I thought I would do you a favor and get it back. The thief seems to have hidden it somewhere though. Don't worry little girl, I'll find your stolen item, just give me a few more minutes with him."

"NO!" she screamed, holding the injured Joey in her arms. "No, don't come closer to him, don't hurt him!"

"Uh? And why not? He's a bully, Yugi. You of all people should know this."

"He's not a bully" she answered, trying desperately to find a way to calm Ushio down. "He's my friend! Don't hurt him!"

"Your friend? Don't make me laugh" Ushio said as he roughly grabbed her by the collar and threw her away as easily as one would throw a rag doll. Yugi's bag ripped open from the force of the throw and it's contents scattered all over the place. "Fine then, Yugi. So you say this guy is your friend. I'll leave him alone then, but my services must still be payed."

"Services?" she asked as she scurried away from him. "What, what do you mean?"

"200,000 Yen. I will expect my payment tomorrow. If you don't have my money, then I'm going to have to forcefully ask for it."

With one last glare and an evil grin, he turned around and left, leaving the two of them alone. Once she realized he wasn't coming back, Yugi again ran next to Joey and knelt beside him, carefully lifting up his face.

"Joey! Joey are you alright?"

"Why did you stand up for me? I'm not your friend."

"I" she was taken aback with the question, but the answer simply blurted out of her mouth. "You are my friend. I couldn't let him hurt you."

"Sorry... I..." the rest of his sentenced was swallowed by a groan as he tried to stand up. With a lot of effort he did, using the wall and Yugi for support Joey managed to get back on his feet. His gaze was deadly serious, and for a moment Yugi was reminded of Ushio. Except that Joey's stare wasn't filled with evil, it was serious and severe yes, but not evil. Suddenly his gaze softened and he looked down at the ground, silently holding something in his hand. Yugi immediately recognized what it was. Her eyes widened and she gasped.

"My... My puzzle piece."

"I took it yesterday..." he said, guilt heavy on his voice. "I heard it was important for you... I'm sorry."

She gingerly took the piece back and held it tightly against her chest. She knew she should thank him, but the truth was that she felt a little angry. He had taken her puzzle piece. He had stolen it!

"Thank you for giving it back" she whispered. It was a forced reply and both of them knew it.

"You don't have to thank me... I'm sorry, Yugi... Damn, I got you into this whole mess. Damn, Ushio."

Yugi's mind remembered what Ushio had said, and her fear and dread returned. 200,000 Yen. By tomorrow. She looked down at the ground as she recalled what happened. He had exactly hit her, but he had roughly thrown her aside. That's when she noticed her pink blouse had ripped open, exposing her white undershirt. Her skirt had thankfully escaped unharmed, but her knees had been scraped and she felt a little taste in her mouth that told her she had ripped her lip. Would he hurt her again? Or Joey? She suddenly felt very scared, and without knowing she was gripping the puzzle piece very, very tight in her little hand.

"I don't know what to do" she said out loud.

"Me neither" Joey answered after a couple of seconds. "But I think we should start by picking up your things."

"Uh?"

Joey slowly walked over her bag and grabbed it, carefully placing back the contents where they belonged.

"What's this?" he asked, holding a deck of cards on his hands, examining it carefully before placing it back inside the pack.

"Cards. Playing cards" she said as she grabbed her backpack.

"Oh... They look cool" he said, and Yugi looked up at him with a sudden thought in her mind. She had never been able to play with anybody aside from her Grandpa, but only when he had taught her how to play. She was still a little mad at Joey, but if she had anything closely resembling a friend, it was him.

"Do you... do you want to play?" she asked him, pulling out the deck and holding it in her hands.

"I have nothing better to do" Joey answered. In reality class was going to begin soon, and they did have some quizzes to do, but right now Joey considered that Yugi was more important than that. If she wanted to play, he would play. Hell, if she had wanted him to play chicken on railroad tracks he probably would have. Damn girl stood up against Ushio and protected him against him, even after everything he had done to her. Even after he took her memento.

Joey's face grew dark again.

_"It's the only memento she has of him, brought all the way from Egypt! The damn thing is 5,000 years old!"_

"We can sit here" Yugi said, pointing at a bench that was sufficiently away from the wind to make sure the cards wouldn't fly away.

She pulled another block of cards and handed them to Joey, who looked impressed at the amount of games that Yugi had in her backpack. It seemed like the only thing in that girl's backpack that wasn't a game was her notebook.

"This guy looks like a bad ass" Joey mentioned as he held a card up.

"That's the Destroyer Golem" Yugi explained with a smile on her face. "He's a pretty strong rock monster."

"Monster?"

"I should start at the beginning. The game's called Duel Monsters. The goal of the game is to bring your opponent's life points to zero. We each start with 8,000 life points and by using our monsters, we can attack our opponent. That's what those numbers on the lower part of the card mean, see?"

"Attack and Defense, eh? Well this guys seems like he could crush just about anything with that attack of his" Joey remarked as he eyed the rest of the cards.

"Yup, like I said he's a pretty strong monster, but only for the early game."

"Early game?"

"Well, he's a level 4 monster, so he doesn't need any Tributes. You see the stronger monsters-"

00

By the time Yugi returned to her home, she felt much better. She had played Duel Monsters with Joey until 4 in the afternoon, and after that he had walked her home. She was still very frightened and worried about tomorrow, but somehow, knowing that Joey would be there made her feel more at ease. There was no way she could raise 200,000 Yen by tomorrow, it was impossible! She only had a couple thousand in her wallet, and that was for school lunches, combined with what she had saved, she had maybe 30,000 Yen, no more.

"I'm in a really jam" she announced to her room as she threw herself on her bed, looking at the ceiling. "What should I do?" She almost fell asleep, exhausted from the events of the day, when she recalled something important, something extremely important. "The puzzle!"

She immediately jumped up from her bed, ripped open the drawer and carefully pulled out the golden pyramid with the prominent hole in the middle. For a long time Yugi simply stared at it. If she finished it, would it mean she would get her wish granted? Would she truly get the friend that she had so fervently wished for all these years?

She held the piece that Joey had given her in her hands for a very long time, looking at the hole and wondering about her wish.

Eventually Yugi changed her wish. She no longer wished for a friend, because today, despite the strange circumstances she had found a friend. One that had taken a beating for her and would probably take another for her. But it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that she just got her friend and now she was going to have to watch him suffer because of some greedy bully.

Yugi held her breath and realized what her new wish was.

_"Wait for me outside the school tomorrow, you shouldn't go in alone."_

_"Uh? Why not?"_

_"Ushio might be waiting for you, it would be best if we went in together."_

_"Joey."_

_"I know he's probably too strong for me, but no way in hell I'm letting you alone with that guy."_

"I wish I had the strength to protect my friends" Yugi said out loud before she pushed the final piece inside.


	2. Yami Yugi

_Hey guys! Thanks so much for the initial reception, I didn't expect this story to be this well received! :)_

_P.S: I own Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related media... What? I do. It's mine, deal with it._

00

Yugi woke up feeling absolutely drained, with the birds chirping at her window and the sun leaking through her window. It was a perfect morning to just lay in bed, and she almost considered doing that, except...

"I'm late!" she screamed as she jumped out of bed, before remembering why she had not set the alarm clock the night before. "Ushio..."

00

She somehow managed to fake a cheerful enough goodbye for her grandpa and her mother before she ran out of the house, but she somehow wondered if they actually knew something was wrong. With every step Yugi felt smaller and smaller until she was certain she was a little speck of dust about to be blown away.

"Yugi?"

"Oh, Joey... Hi."

"You look better" he told her as the two of them kept walking the last block towards the school.

"You think he's going to be there?"

"I don't know, I hope not."

The two of them crossed the school gate and watched with eyes as wide as plates the scene unfolding before them. Ushio was there alright, but he was thrown on the ground, laughing maniacally as he threw leaves to the air and caught them again as they fell down. Joey and Yugi merely looked at each other and very silently, hoping they wouldn't be noticed, walked past him. The bell rang and the duo quickly ran towards the classroom, leaving the still laughing Ushio playing with his leaves.

00

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know, he's been like that since I arrived" Tea said as she eyed Yugi from the corner of her eye. She was wearing the same impeccable uniform with the tight black choker around her neck, but this time there was a heavy chain around her neck, and the large golden puzzle now hung from her neck. "Nice to see you managed to finish it after all."

"What? Oh, yeah my puzzle! I finished it!" Yugi exclaimed, holding the heavy puzzle between her two hands as she gave Tea a beaming smile. "Joey helped me!"

"Joey? As in Wheeler?"

"Yup" Yugi said as she looked down at the puzzle. "He found the last piece and gave it to me" she said. It wasn't a lie... technically.

"Mmm... That's nice. I'm glad you managed to finish it, Yugi" she told her before she was called over by some friends. "I'll talk to you later, Yugi! Stay out of trouble!"

00

"Ah crap" Joey mumbled as his monsters were destroyed yet again. "What's going on? I'm not getting the cards I need!"

"Let me see" Yugi said as she checked Joey's hand. "Joey! Look at the Monster Reborn in your hand!"

"What? Oh damn! I forgot all about it! All right then, gimme, gimme, gimme!"

"My graveyard or yours?"

"Yours! I wanna bring back your Curse of Dragon!" Joey said with a grin. "Alright, now I'm gonna use Polymerization, to Summon my Flame Swordsman."

"And now?"

"Well now comes the fun part, doesn't it? I attack your face down monster with Curse of Dragon!"

"Oops" Yugi said as she flipped the monster face up.

"Not again!" Joey complained as Yugi giggled. She sent her Man-Eater bug to the graveyard and tapped the Flame Swordsman, and Joey grabbed his monster and placed it in the graveyard. "How many of those you got?"

Yugi silently held up 3 fingers as she drew a card and placed another monster on defense position before placing two cards face down.

"Go" she told him, Joey drew another card.

"Alright, let's see how you handle this one Yugi. Nobleman of Crossout!" he proudly declared as he placed the card on the field with a grin. Yugi silently removed her monster from play. "Alright, now I'm gonna summon this little fella right here and with both of them I attack your life points directly!"

"You can only attack with one at a time Joey" Yugi reminded him, and Joey muttered something under his breath.

"Fine, then I'll attack with Curse of Dragon first."

"Then I'll activate Magic Cylinders" she declared with a smile. The sight of Joey banging his head against the table was more than she could bear, and she began giggling and laughing uncontrollably.

"Fine, Yugi. You win this one, but just you wait till I get my hands on some cards of my own! I'm gonna built the most powerful deck you've ever seen!"

"Hey, wanna come by my house later? My grandpa has a really rare card I wanna show you!"

"Your grandpa?" Joey asked her, and Yugi nodded.

_"It's the only memento she has of him, brought all the way from Egypt! The damn thing is 5,000 years old!"_

Had Tea lied to him? Hadn't she said it was a memento?

"Sure, let's go" he said, wondering if maybe it was her other Grandfather that had brought it for her.

00

Kaiba watched the two of them leave. While it had been pathetic to watch that little display of theirs in the courtyard, there was no way anybody could have failed to hear what Yugi said before they left.

_"My grandpa has a really rare card I wanna show you!"_

"Could it be?"

00

"Wow! You certainly have lotsa cards in here, Yugi! Your grandpa must have worked really had to get all of these!"

"He did, and these are the ones he sells, they're not even the best he has."

"Hey, Yugi. You said that there's even Duel Monsters tournaments held right?"

"Yeah."

"So how come you don't participate? I mean you got some pretty good cards, I'm sure you could win if you entered."

"Well... I don't know, I guess I never even considered it... Oh, look there's my Grandpa!"

"Yugi! How was your day, dear?"

"It was great, Grandpa!" she told him truthfully. Yugi's spirits had been soaring ever since she realized Ushio wasn't going to bother them anymore. She didn't understand it any better than Joey, but somehow things had worked out. "Grandpa, could you please show Joey the rare card you showed me the other day? Please, please?"

"Oh, you mean my super special card... Mmm... Alright, I think I can show it to him."

"Really? Thanks, old man!"

"Who are you calling old man?"

"Ah, nobody" Joey said, scratching his head with a grin.

"Fine, it's here. This card is one of the few copies that exist in the entire world, but even more important than that, this card was given to me by a very precious friend of mine. Here it is."

Solomon Muto pulled out a small jewelry box and opened it, but instead of having jewelry inside of it, there was a Duel Monsters card carefully placed in the center of the box. Yugi had seen it several times before, but she never got used to seeing it.

"The Blue Eyes White Dragon" Yugi breathed.

"Wow, this card's sick" Joey said as he eyed it carefully. "Forget the Destroyer Golem, this guy can crush anything on his path!"

"Yup, and look at this. Grandpa show him the spell card!"

"He, he, now hold on Yugi. Let him savor the moment" Solomon said, chuckling softly. After a few more seconds he turned the card around, where the spell card Yugi had referred to was also carefully hidden.

"That's the Burst Stream of Destruction" Yugi told her friend, whose eyes got even wider. "If you control a face up Blue Eyes White Dragon, you can destroy all of your opponent's monsters in one blow, no matter how many or how strong they are!"

"No way! You can do that?"

"Yup, that spell card's even rarer than the Blue Eyes himself" Yugi told him with a grin. "If you combine Burst Stream of destruction with Polymerization you can create the Ultimate Blue Eyes White Dragon, and you can nail 4500 points of damage to your opponent in a single blow, and he can't do anything about it!"

"Unreal" Joey breathed. "How much is that card worth?"

"More than all the money in the world to me" Solomon replied with a smile.

"Old Man!" a voice came from the back of the store.

Yugi, Solomon and Joey turned around and looked at the person that had just entered the game shop. She was wearing the same uniform Yugi was, which told Solomon that she was from the same school. She was tall, even taller than Joey. She had light brown hair and bright blue eyes that were wide open with surprise.

"I'm sorry, we're closed, young lady."

"Kaiba!" Yugi said, shocked to see somebody so important in her home.

"Kaiba? Oh, you mean Miss Seto Kaiba" Solomon said with a gentle grin as he closed the small box. "What would the CEO of Kaiba Corporation be doing in my humble store, I wonder?"

"The card" she said, completely ignoring Yugi and Joey. "I want to buy it! Name your price and I'll pay it!"

Yugi's eyes went wide when she heard Kaiba's offer. She wasn't even bargaining. Anything? Any price? Was she serious? Her eyes went even wider when she heard her grandfather's answer.

"I'm sorry but this card is not for sale" he said with the same gentle look on his face.

"What? A trade then!" Kaiba said, not giving up. She grabbed her briefcase and placed it on the table, she quickly fingered the combination and opened it. Yugi and Joey almost fell down to the ground when they saw what the briefcase contained. Hundred and hundreds of cards, neatly organized by rarity and value, each of them easily worth over a hundred dollars. Was the Blue Eyes White Dragon that valuable? "For your Blue Eyes White Dragon I will trade all these cards! I can have more delivered tomorrow if you want. Just trade me your card!"

Solomon Muto looked at the tall girl with pity on his eyes. He could tell from her eyes that she really wanted the card and that she truly was willing to pay any price to get it. If he could have, he would have given it to her.

"I'm sorry" he answered. "But this card was given to me by a very dear friend of mine, and because of that it means more to me than all the cards or money in the world. I'm sorry but I cannot give you this card."

"A friend?" Kaiba echoed, her gaze hard and unflinching. She wasn't going to get the Blue Eyes White Dragon like this and she knew it. "Fine" she said, slamming her briefcase shut and turning around to leave. "Those cards are being wasted in a dump like this" she said before she opened the door and left.

"Damn, who does she think she is?" Joey asked as he closed the door Kaiba had left open and locked it. "Just cause she's rich doesn't mean she can treat other people like that."

"Young Miss Kaiba will learn that lesson one day, Joey. Don't worry about it."

"Still, it burns me up."

"Hey, Joey, you wanted to buy some cards right?"

"Oh that's right! Hey Mr. Muto, you think you can sell me some strong cards? Yugi's been lending me hers but she keeps beating me all the time!"

"Ah, Yugi, have you been holding your trap cards only for yourself?"

"Ah... no... maybe" she said twirling her thumbs while she clasped her hands together.

"Ha, ha, ha. Well, I think I had an old deck that I haven't used for a while. I could sell it to you cheap. Let me see."

00

"Damn it" Kaiba muttered as she bit her lip and looked out the window of her limo. "Stupid old man. He has no idea of what he has in his hands... I need to have it, I need those cards..."

00

Two tall and broad men wearing matching black suits and sunglasses entered his store, quickly pushing a pair of children that were looking for a new game to buy out of the store. Somehow he wasn't surprised when they said the first sentence.

"Mister Muto. Miss Kaiba wishes to speak with you. Please come with us."

"Ah, and I suppose Miss Kaiba would not take a no for an answer, would she?"

"That's right."

The old man was silent for a minute, and the two men wondered if he was going to resist. But three seconds before they decided to just grab him, he nodded and walked back to the counter.

"Then I suppose I should take this" he said as he grabbed a small jewelry box. He then a grabbed a deck of cards and walked towards the two men. "This is what she wants, after all."

Kaiba's men nodded and opened the door. Once Solomon Muto was in the limo they had waiting for him the closed the doors and sped off faster than Solomon would have liked.

00

"Mirror Force" Tea said, flipping the card over.

"I hate this game" Joey muttered as he placed a card face down. "I end my turn."

Before she had a chance to play, Tea, Yugi and Joey were interrupted by a tall man walking right next to them in the middle of the schoolyard, blocking their sunlight.

"Excuse me" Tea mumbled, looking directly at the man. "You're blocking our light."

"Yeah, could you move, please?"

"Yugi Muto?" the man said, and the young girl turned around, craning her neck up to look at his face.

"Yes?"

"Miss Seto Kaiba wishes to speak with you. At once."

"Kaiba?"

"What does she want with Yugi?" Joey asked the man, standing up and looking straight in the eye. Or at least where he thought his eye was, those shades made it difficult to be sure. "Kaiba and Yugi aren't exactly friends."

"Miss Kaiba did not inform me of the nature of her invitation, only that it was extremely important that Yugi Muto came to Kaiba Corp and speak to her at once."

"Okay" Yugi said, grabbing her bag and getting up.

"Yugi, what are you doing?"

"Going" she answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why? You don't even know Kaiba!"

"I think I'm pretty sure what she wants" Yugi said, giving her friends a reassuring smile. "I'm going, don't worry, Kaiba might seem mean sometimes, but it's not like she's gonna hurt anybody, right?"

00

"Grandpa!" Yugi screamed as she ran forward, grabbing her Grandpa's shoulders and carefully turning him around. "Grandpa! What happened to you?"

"Yugi" he spoke, his voice strained. He sounded hurt.

"Grandpa, what happened, Grandpa? Are you hurt?"

"Yugi, I came here to teach... to teach her a lesson about the heart of the cards... but I lost. I failed..."

"Grandpa, don't talk" Yugi said, suddenly fearing for her grandfather's health. "Kaiba! What did you do to my Grandfather?"

"Me?" she replied. "Why nothing, I merely invited him to play a friendly game of Duel Monsters. We played for ante, and he lost" Kaiba said, playfully twirling a card in her hand. Yugi only caught a glimpse of it, but she was certain that was it. The Blue Eyes White Dragon.

"No! Give back my Grandpa's cards!"

"My... Blue Eyes" Solomon moaned, clutching his chest with pain.

Kaiba gave Yugi an innocent smile and handed the card to her, holding it between her index and middle finger. Yugi suspiciously stretched her hand without a word, extremely worried. Very gently she grabbed the card with her thumb and index finger, slowly pulling it from Kaiba's grasp.

"No" Kaiba said, pulling back hard on the card.

There was a soft sound Yugi at first didn't recognize, and it wasn't until she looked down at the card that she understood what had happened. She read the text in front of her eyes.

This legendary dragon is a powerful engine of destruction. Virtually invincible, very few have faced this awesome creature and lived to tell the tale.

Yugi let out a small cry and grabbed the ripped card with both hands, wishing as fervently as she could that it wasn't real, that it wasn't happening.

"No... Grandpa's card."

"Yugi" Solomon said, and his granddaughter turned to face him with tears in her eyes.

"Grandpa... I'm sorry" she said, doing her best to not break down right where she was.

"Yugi... take my cards. My deck. I poured my heart and my soul into those cards. I carefully chose them and made them my own. Teach her... Kaiba only thinks about power... Teach her about the heart of the cards, Yugi!"

"Grandpa!" Yugi said, carefully grabbing the deck and holding Solomon's shoulder, carefully leaning him against the ground. "Relax grandpa, don't stress yourself, it's not good for your heart."

"Leave your grandpa to us, Yugi!" A voice suddenly said, and Yugi turned her head up. She had absolutely no idea how Joey and Tea had arrived in Kaiba Corp, but she had never been happier to see them. "Seems to me like you got some unfinished business with Kaiba."

"Unfinished business? With me?" Kaiba said, tossing the other half of the Blue Eyes in Yugi's general direction. "Why should I bother with you? I already have what I want, what could you possibly have to offer for the chance to duel me?"

"What's the matter, Kaiba? I hadn't taken you for a chicken!"

"No... Joey, Tea, please just take my Grandpa and go. I need to talk to Kaiba alone."

"Are you sure?" Tea asked, already lifting Solomon up. "Look what Kaiba did to him! She could do the same to you!"

"I'll be fine, Tea" Yugi answered, never taking her eyes off Kaiba.

_I wish for the strength to protect my friends._

Fear, doubt, pain, sorrow and guilt, they all washed away from Yugi, and she could feel how her rage increased. The tears falling from her eyes stopped and her teeth began grinding together. Never in her life had she felt as angry as she did at that moment. Her Grandfather's treasured card, the card that had traveled around the world with him. Ripped in half, simply because Kaiba decided that if she couldn't have it, then nobody would have it.

"So? I asked you a question" Kaiba told her once Joey and Tea had left. The annoyed look in her face was still very much present. "Why should I duel you?"

"Because I have something you want. No, something you need" Yugi said, her voice stronger and firmer, barely biting back the poison rising in her throat. "Because of your foolishness, Kaiba, you didn't see that the Blue Eyes White Dragon wasn't the only treasure that my Grandfather had."

"What?"

"My Grandfather had an even rarer card. A card I'm sure he placed in this deck" Yugi said, as she quickly flipped through the cards. Finding it, she smiled and playfully showed it to Kaiba.

"No" Kaiba breathed, her eyes even wider than when she first saw the Blue Eyes White Dragon. "How? Pegasus was supposed to keep the only copy of that card! How did he get it?"

"My Grandfather cherished both his Blue Eyes White Dragon and his Burst Stream of Destruction. Because of your greed, he won't be able to see his card again. I'm not going to forgive you for this, Kaiba. We will duel, and I will destroy you" Yugi stated, the last shred of doubt and shyness gone.

The initially taken aback Kaiba quickly managed to regain her composure and she crossed her arms.

"Fine, we will duel. But you won't last five turns against me! I'm going to beat you just as easily as I beast your grandfather!"

"You're going to regret saying that" Yugi softly swore as she followed the suddenly not-much-taller Kaiba.

00

"Unreal" Yugi said, her mind wandering for a brief moment before she focused on the task at hand. She eyed the horrible monster in front of her, and grinned. "So this is how you beat my Grandfather, Kaiba. Now it's no surprise he lost to a loser like you."

"What did you just called me?" Kaiba said, gripping her cards a bit too hard. "Do you even have the faintest idea of how many tournament's I have won? No, never mind... You're going to learn the hard way. I'll play one card face down and end my turn!"

"Good" Yugi said, drawing a card from her deck. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your face down card" she declared, and Kaiba silently sent her Mirror Force to the graveyard. Still grinning, Yugi grabbed the next card in her hand. "I play the spell card Ancient Rules!"

With as much enthusiasm as her body could take, Yugi slammed down her card on the dueling arena. The receiver blinked once and immediately recognized the card. It deemed the play legal and displayed the result. One of her Grandfather's favorite cards was now floating in front of her.

"Damn."

"Dark Magician" Yugi declared. "destroy her Battle Ox! Dark Magic Blast!"

Her monster rose in the air and aimed at Kaiba's monster with his staff, his purple robes fluttering from the energy he was gathering. The tip of his staff glowed with a sickly dark energy and he fired a big black energy ball directly at the weaker beast, destroying it before Kaiba could even react. Yugi chuckled softly and placed a single card face down.

"How nice" Kaiba replied as she drew her card. "But if that is the best you have I'm sorely disappointed. Fissure."

The ground beneath the Dark Magician suddenly opened, and a furious wind began sucking him in deep into the hole.

"No! Dark Magician!"

Her monster gripped the border of the ground, but before he could pull himself out of the chasm, his grip faltered and he fell into the abyss.

"Such a powerful Monster and yet it didn't last a single turn, how sad. I summon La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp!"

"And I activate Trap Hole" Yugi replied with a bored tone in her voice. "Really Kaiba, did you really think you would get me with that? Stop wasting my time and fight seriously, would you?"

If Kaiba was annoyed, she was doing an excellent job at hiding it.

"Please, I'm just getting started" she replied before she placed a card face down. "Your move, Yugi."

00

"How do you think Yugi's doing?"

"She'll be fine. Yugi's the best when it comes to games, Kaiba doesn't stand a chance!" Joey reassured Tea.

"I guess, but I'm still a little worried. Look, Yugi's grandpa will be fine. The doctor's already said that he merely good too excited but that it was nothing to worry about. Why don't you head back to Kaiba Corp and cheer Yugi on? I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

"Mmm... I guess. Alright, I'll go back, you keep a close eye on things around here and let me know if something happens to the old man, alright?"

"You betcha" Tea told him. "Now get going!"

00

3800 Life points left. Enough to withstand a single attack from Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon. If only he had only one.

Yugi sweated as she watched both dragons floating between Kaiba and her, ready to attack. She could place a monster in defense position and survive for one turn, but that would do nothing to stop those monsters. Hoping that the next card would hold something interesting, she drew her card... and smiled.

"I play swords of revealing light!" she stated. "Now, for three of your end phases, all your monsters are going to have to sit back and watch, Kaiba."

"Three turns" she scoffed as she drew a card, placing a monster in defense position and ended her turn. "I can prolong your demise for a little while."

Yugi then played Pot of Greed, hoping for a good draw, but nothing came, only another of those weak arms and legs. She already had three, what good were those? Why had her Grandpa included those cards in the deck when there were so many others to play?

"I'll tribute my face down monster to Summon, the Dark Magician Girl" Yugi announced, sending her monster to the Graveyard and placing the card on top. Again the scanner beeped once and the Dark Magician Girl appeared in front of her. "Since you were kind enough to send my Dark Magicians to the Graveyard, my Dark Magician Girls now gains 300 attack points for each of them, which means she now has 2600 attack points!"

"Nice speech, you want to explain to me how you're going to destroy my Dragons too? You only got two more turns before they're free to attack, and once their free I'll be able to easily destroy you."

"Two more turns is all I need, Kaiba! Dark Magician Girl, destroy her defense position monster!"

Just like her master before her, the Dark Magician girl aimed her staff at the hidden creature and opened fire, sending a huge purple sphere that collided against the card and exploded it to bits. Unfortunately for Yugi, the monster she had just destroy was none other than the Man Eater Bug, a fact Kaiba was all too happy to reveal.

"You're running out of Spellcasters, Yugi!" Kaiba taunted her as she drew a card. "I'll play one card face down and end my turn."

Hoping for some way to finish off those dragons before they could attack, Yugi drew, only to be extremely disappointed.

_"What am I supposed to do with these arms and legs? Why did you include them here, Grandpa? Damn it."_

"I'll play a monster in defense position and end my turn."

"Well, this is the last turn those pesky swords will be in the way, let's see if you can even survive a single turn without them."

00

Joey stared in awe at the battlefield. He didn't want to admit it, but it looked like Kaiba was winning. He had two Blue Eyes White Dragons summoned on the field, plus another mean looking monster that was probably pretty strong too, while Yugi only had 1 monster in defense position. The swords had delayed Kaiba, but that's all they had done, Yugi still hadn't destroyed her dragons, and Joey couldn't think of a card that could blow them all to bits.

"Come on, Yugi. You're a tough gal, you can pull through this" he muttered as he bit his finger.

00

"I activate my Trap Card, Ultimate Offering! Now I'll pay 500 life points to summon an extra Monsters on my side of the field. I'll summon another monster in defense position and I'll tribute them both to Summon, my last Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

"No" Yugi breathed. "Another one? It can't be!"

"Yes, Yugi. I have three Blue Eyes White Dragons in my deck, and in my next turn, not even a miracle could save you! There's nothing in your deck, your hand, or your graveyard that can stand up to my dragons, just give up!"

_"Damn it she's right. I have no good cards left! The cards in my hand aren't useful for anything! And what could possibly be left in this deck? I just don't see how I can... Wait a moment... these cards... I remember now! These are the arms and legs of a monster so powerful that it takes five full cards to hold his power! Grandpa told me all about it! Could he have them all? This must be why he placed all these cards here! But I still need the head, these pieces are useless unless the five are together! What can I do? The swords are gone. I only have this turn... Damn, the chances of drawing the card I need are too slim! There's just no way I can pull this off..."_

"Hurry up and draw your last pathetic card, Yugi. This duel is all but over" Kaiba ordered her, but Yugi met her gaze and didn't flinch in response.

"My Grandfather's deck has no pathetic cards, Kaiba" she said, angrily pulling the last card and eyeing it carefully. She had never seen it before. She didn't even know that her grandfather had that card. But she was glad that he did. "But it does have, Exodia, The Forbidden One!"

00

"Exodia the what?" Joey mumbled, trying to get closer to the arena. Kaiba look freaked out of her mind, while Yugi was chuckling softly to herself. Boy, she looked so evil right now, even Joey felt a little chill in the air. Kaiba was gonna get it now.

00

"No, it can't be" Kaiba screamed, clutching her cards in her hands and looking in terror at the pentagram appearing in front of her. "Exodia the Forbidden One, how? How did that old man get those cards? It can't be!"

"It can be Kaiba" Yugi said, patiently waiting for Exodia to come forth from his prison. One leg burst forward from the pentagram, and an arm followed. Soon she saw another arm punch the air and pull the rest of the body out. Exodia was huge. He dwarfed Kaiba's three Blue Eyes White Dragons both in power and in sheer size, it was as if he could barely contain his own power. Huge chains hung from his arms and legs, and his chest was bound by a magical seal, but even with all that interference, Yugi had no doubt that Exodia was mightier than any of Seto's monsters. "Your Blue Eyes White Dragons are powerful creatures, but there is not a single duel monster that can withstand the power of my Grandfather's monster! Exodia! OBLITERATE!"

The huge monsters pulled both hands back and filled his fists with golden light that filled the entire room, blinding the two girls completely, Yugi could only hear Kaiba's screams of denial.

"NOOOOOO! EXODIA! NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Exodia fired his attack, sending the monstrous energy in Kaiba's direction. Her dragons were destroyed in an instant, and Exodia's attack continued and hit Kaiba head on. The light disappeared, and Yugi looked at the defeated Kaiba with the same harsh gaze she had had before the duel began.

"Kaiba. You could think of nothing but power all this time, and that's why you lost! You lost to me because you don't understand the power of the heart of the cards. But I'm not the one to teach you... You lost our game, and that means it's time to face your penalty game."

"My... What?" she asked, looking at Yugi without the faintest idea of what she was talking about. "I didn't ante anything" she recalled. "I couldn't have lost... I'm the champion, why did I lose?"

"You still don't know why you lost, Kaiba? Fine, I'll help you see why you lost! Face yourself, and maybe afterwards you will finally understand!" The small girl said, her gaze fixed on her opponent like a deathly scope, ready to fire. She lifted her hand and pointed a single finger at Kaiba, and then she shouted in a booming voice from out of this world that was heard all over the building and froze Joey's blood on his veins. "MIND CRUSH!"


	3. Burger World

_"Looks like you wiped the floor with her" Joey told her with a smirk._

_"I... I guess I did. Did I?"_

_"Oh boy, did you! I couldn't believe it when I saw that monster!" Joey exclaimed as he placed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her along. "I can't believe your grandpa had such powerful cards! Boy am I glad you never use them against me! But what was that thing you did at the end?"_

_"At the end?" the small girl asked, lifting her head and looking at him with confusion in her big violet eyes. "I don't know."_

_"Really? Aw, never mind, you scared the lights out of Kaiba, I don't think she gonna get up anytime soon."_

00

"What I did at the end?" Yugi whispered as she laid on her bed. What had she done at the end, and why couldn't she remember the entire duel? She remembered getting her grandpa's deck and then... that was it. She felt really angry, she felt frustrated, but above all furious, furious at Kaiba, angrier than she had ever been in her entire life. But that was it. "What happened to me?"

00

"You noticed the same thing?" Joey asked Tea, poking her in the ribs softly in the middle of class.

"Ouch! What about Yugi?" she asked, rubbing her side. "Yeah, it's beginning to worry me. She hasn't been paying attention in class, and even during lunch she seemed to be thinking about something important."

"Well, her grandfather has been through a lot. Could she be worried about him?" Joey asked with an unprecedented amount of tact.

"I... I don't think so" Tea said, looking at Yugi from the corner of her eye. "I think we need to ask her."

"Let's go to Burger World after class, maybe she'll tell us what's wrong."

"Right" Tea mumbled before pushing him off her and forcing Joey to go back to his desk.

00

"So what are you getting Yugi?"

"I'm not really hungry" she said, still looking down at the floor. "I'll just get a soda."

"Right. One soda and... a number 3 will ya?"

"Sure thing" the cashier said, taking Joey's money and giving him back his change. "We'll take it to your table in a moment."

Joey and Yugi sat down on opposite ends of the table. Without a single word the two of them pulled out their decks and began playing, while Tea patiently waited for the moment to ask Yugi.

"I'll be right back guys" she said once she realized Yugi had pulled another lock down on Joey, those took forever to break. "I'm going to the bathroom."

The place was mostly empty, only a few more customers were there, so Tea quickly made her way to the bathroom. She never got there, though, because the doors opened and a red haired man rushed forward and grabbed her roughly.

"Hey there, precious" he said in a disgusting voice. His breath smelled horrible, and the rest of him wasn't any better. He had the number 777 tattooed on his forehead, and while that drew Tea's attention momentarily, her eyes then diverted to the gun he was pointing right at her. "Why don't you keep me some company?"

Tea was about to scream before he placed the barrel of the gun inside her mouth, and she froze in place.

"Mmph!"

"LISTEN UP! MAKE ANY NOISE AND THE CHICK GETS IT!"

"Tea!" Joey and Yugi screamed as they got up from the table and stared at the intruder.

"Shut up! I don't intend to stay here long" he said with a grin as he pushed the barrel of the gun deeper into Tea's mouth, making her take a step backwards. Slowly, he kept pushing her, making his way towards the tables. "I'm just gonna grab a bite and then get going. In the meantime, she's gonna stay here and keep me company, aren't you precious?" he asked, slapping Tea's cheek playfully. "Sit down."

"Tea!" Yugi screamed "Please let her go!"

"Damn that coward" Joey mumbled under his breath. He grabbed Yugi's shoulder to make sure that she wouldn't do anything stupid and began to think. What could he do?

00

Tea was now blinded. The criminal had wrapped a bandana around her head and made sure that she couldn't see anything, and she was growing more and more frightened with every passing second.

"Alright" the man said, resting the gun on her neck. She stiffened even more and would have certainly squirmed away from his grasp if not for his reminder of threatening to blow her brains out if she did anything. "Hey, you! The little shrimp!"

"Yugi?" Joey asked, pushing her back and placing a step forward.

"Did I talk to you?" he asked, pushing the gun barrel deeper into Tea's neck, earning a small cry from her. "I said the little shrimp! Everybody else get on the floor, hands over your heads!"

The rest of the customers quickly did as they were told, but Joey was still standing, in response, the man forcefully pushed the gun even deeper into her neck, making her groan and moan in pain. Joey got the message and got down to the ground, gritting his teeth angrily.

"Please, just let us go" Yugi said once everybody had gotten down on the ground.

"Shut up" he replied, and she did. "You're going to go and get me some booze, and some cigarettes, and hurry it up! I'm not in the mood to wait for long."

"I... I" Yugi mumbled, she was underage, how could she possibly get those things?

"Hurry up!" he yelled, and Yugi ran out of the store as fast as her little legs could carry her.

00

She returned ten minutes later, carrying a tray that contained a bottle of vodka, a pack of cigarettes, a glass and a lighter.

"I... I got it" she mumbled as she hesitantly took a step forward.

"Yugi?" Tea asked, getting up from her seat. "Yugi get out of here before you get hurt!"

The man grabbed her hand, pulled her down hard and slapped her face with as much strength as he could muster, sending her crashing against the glass of the store, where a small red mark was left.

"TEA!"

00

Joey could only see a glimpse of Yugi, but what he saw was enough. She looked different, just like when she had dueled Kaiba, she seemed, taller? Her hair was different, while her golden bangs would usually fall down to the side of her face, now her black and gold hair was completely wild, sticking out in all directions.

"What's happening to her?"

00

"Here's what you ordered" Yugi said, dropping the tray in front of the criminal and sitting down in front of him. She crossed her legs and her arms and looked at him with an amused grin in her face.

"Hey, did I say you could sit down?"

"What? I thought I'd keep you company. If you've got the guts, would you like to play a game?"

"A game?" he asked, eyeing her carefully. He grabbed the cigarette box and pulled one out with his teeth. "I do need to have a little fun."

"I should warn you, the loser of the game loses their life" Yugi continued. "We could call it a shadow game."

"Interesting, so what are the rules?"

"Alright, I'll explain. You and I stay in opposite ends of the table, but we can interact anyway we chose, with one exception. We each choose one of our ten fingers, and that is the only finger we can move until the game ends. Whichever finger you choose is up to you. So... which one do you choose?"

"Easy, I choose my right index finger" he answered as he slowly poured himself a drink. "That's all I need to kill you."

"In that case, I choose my right thumb... Tell me, what will you do, when the game begins?" Yugi asked as he drank his glass with one gulp and reached for the bottle to pour himself another glass.

"Why, I'll just pull the trigger, that's all."

"Of course you would" she said before closing her eyes for a moment. "Game start!"

"And game over!" the man declared as he aimed his gun at Yugi's head. Yugi silently flicked her thumb, and turned on the lighter in her hand. "Oh, I forgot I ordered a lighter, and it's been a while since I've smoked... As your last act, use your thumb to light my cigarette, then I'll kill you."

Silently Yugi leaned forward on the table and with a grin she light his cigarette. She then smiled directly at him and dropped the lighter.

"Game over."

"What?" the man screamed as sweat beads began to form on his brow and neck. His breathing stopped, and he did his best to not move. He kept pouring his drink, unable to do anything else.

The lighter was resting on his hand, and although he was free to fire at the little bitch in front of him, the recoil from the shot would make the lighter fall, right into the overflowing glass of vodka below his hand.

"That alcohol is Russian Vodka" Yugi told him with a grin. "You might want to be careful with that, it burns easily."

Yugi reached over the table and pulled Tea up. The aspiring dancer understood that she could leave and she jumped up the table and allowed Yugi to lead her away from the horrible man that had made her entire life flash before her eyes. After a couple of seconds Yugi stopped pulling her and she came to a halt. She took off the white cloth covering her eyes and looked at her friend. She seemed different, but before Tea could thank her or even look at her, the smaller girl turned to face the man, who was still keeping the lighter on his hand. He was trembling and sweating, and the vodka was pouring down the table and into the floor.

"You haven't won the game yet, you little bitch!" he screamed in despair, but it was clear there was nothing he could do.

Yugi aimed her thumb at the man, the only finger she could move, per her own rules, and grinned one more time.

"MIND CRUSH!"

00

"So basically, nobody knows what the hell happened" the officer said, brushing his mustache with his fingers and looking at the report. "The girl that was held hostage said that somebody pulled her away from the man and lead her to safety, but nobody can confirm that."

"All we know is that the man burned to death" said the other officer. "It's not like it matters, he was on death row anyways. I'm just glad nobody was hurt that day."

"You don't think it's strange? I mean the man escapes from a maximum security prison, gets into town and hold a restaurant hostage and then, he just burns up?"

"Of course I think it's strange, but how can we know what happened there? The cameras went off shortly after he told that girl to go get him what he wanted and we have no witness, all we got is the corpse of a very, very bad man. I say case closed."

00

"Yugi" Tea said with shyness, looking down at the ground. "Today I had my life flash before my eyes. I thought I was going to die back there. My dream of becoming a dancer... I actually saw it end today, Yugi."

"Tea."

"I don't know what you did... but thank you, Yugi. Thank you for saving my life!" Tea exclaimed as she hugged her friend tightly and allowed the tears of joy to flow freely. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Tea, I..." Yugi answered, unsure of what to say. Why was Tea thanking her? What had she done? She remembered entering Burger World, ordering, going to seat down. She was playing with Joey, he was just about to break her lock and win, she recalled. Then the man came into the restaurant, he was holding Tea hostage. He told her to get him some booze and cigarettes... and that was all. What had happened?

"Thank you, Yugi! Thank you!"

00

As it had become usual, Joey walked Yugi to her home, but unlike other days, the two of them weren't speaking, they were too immersed in their own thoughts. Yugi was still wondering what had happened, and the rush of the day still hadn't come down on her. She was tired, very tired, and scared. Even though she knew the man was dead and they were no longer in trouble, she was very scared. She had almost seen a friend die today, and it was not something she ever wanted to see again.

"Hey, Yugi" Joey began, and from his voice Yugi realized it was something he had wanted to get off his chest for quite a while now. "At Burger World..."

"Yeah?"

"You changed" he said, and she froze. He took it as a hint that something was wrong and he stopped too. "Just like when you dueled Kaiba. What happened to you? Not that I'm complaining, but you seem just a bit too different from your regular self."

"I... I... Well... I don't know" she admitted, sitting down on the sidewalk and looking down at her shoes. "I don't remember anything Joey, when Tea was hugging me and thanking me for saving her, I had no idea what she was talking about!"

"You don't know? Then you don't remember when you dueled Kaiba?"

"No" she sighed, looking up at her friend. "I remember being very, very mad at Kaiba. I was going to challenge her to a duel, but then, I felt like I had passed out, next thing I knew, you were telling me what a great fight that was and what an amazing deck my grandpa had... The same thing happened at Burger World, I went out to get the stuff he wanted and then... then the police was asking me if I had seen anything... I don't remember anything, Joey."

"Are those the only two times that this has happened?"

"Yes... No" Yugi said, standing up and looking at Joey with shocked eyes. "The same thing happened to me before! I thought that I was just tired because it was late at night but-"

"Yugi" Joey interrupted her. "When was the first time this happened?"

"The night I complete-."

"The Millennium Puzzle" Joey breathed, looking down at the golden Pyramid hanging from her neck with new found wariness.

"I... Yes..."

"You need to be careful around that thing Yugi. Do you even know what it is?"

"I... I'm not really sure. My grandpa told me that whoever completed the puzzle would get their wish granted, but aside from that and the fact that it's from Egypt and very old. I don't know much about it."

"Then you should try to find out stuff, Yugi. I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe we should go to the library or something... Well, maybe you should go."

"I... I'll ask my Grandpa tonight" Yugi stated, feeling a little bit better now that she had finally said what was bothering her. "Maybe he'll now a few more things about this puzzle, and if he doesn't, well maybe he knows somebody who knows."

"Yeah" Joey answered, and the two of them kept walking in silence. He didn't say anything else, but the truth was that he was very worried about her. He had seen how Yugi turned around and yelled the same thing she had yelled to Kaiba, and the same thing happened to the guy in the Burger Shop. His body had crumpled down, just like Kaiba had, and after that he looked dead. It had been extremely frightening, watching how he burned to death without even noticing the fire around him. And to think that the cause of that had been the very shy girl walking right next to him. Yugi better find out what that damn thing around her neck was. It might have helped them this time, but he wasn't sure it would keep helping them forever.


	4. The Millennium Eye

It was very late by the time Solomon Muto finished telling his granddaughter the story of how he found the Millennium Puzzle, and Yugi was feeling very tired as she walked up the stairs. Dark Powers, the pharaoh, Monsters, Shadow Realm, it was too much for a single day. Normally she wouldn't have believed a word of what her Grandpa had told her, but he had been deadly serious when he told her, and her blackouts? She was beginning to understand what was going on.

Yugi threw herself on her bed and looked up at the ceiling, touching and turning the Puzzle in her chest. Despite its weight she could fit it in one hand. This told her that it truly was of solid gold, just like her Grandpa had said. If that was true, why not the rest? Could it all be true?

_"It is."_

"It could be all true" she responded, flipping the puzzle over and over in her hands. "Wait, what? Grandpa?"

Yugi got up and looked around, she was alone. She opened the door to her room and looked out the hallway, there was nobody there.

_"Are you done?"_

"What? Who is there?" she asked, her voice only slightly trembling with fear.

_"I'm here" _the voice answered, not helping in the least.

"Who are you? Where are you?"

_"Turn around."_

Yugi spun on her heels, and still clutching the Millennium Puzzle as tightly as she could, looked behind her. What she found was not a person that had been hiding behind her, or something like that. Instead, she stared directly at a pair of frightened violet eyes.

"What?"

The violet eyes stopped shaking and they focused on her. The mouth stopped trembling and turned into an amused grin. The golden bangs on the person's hair turned upward and sticked out in all directions, like a shining black and gold star. The reflection in her mirror crossed her arms and leaned on her right foot, and for a moment Yugi wondered if she had lost her mind.

_"No, you haven't"_ she answered, looking more and more amused by the second.

"What?"

_"You say that word a lot, don't you?"_

"What are you?" she asked, taking a step back.

_"I'm you. Well no, scratch that. I'm better than you, in every sense of the word"_ she spoke. Her voice was similar to her, but slightly deeper, and much more firmer, turning Yugi's very girly voice into the voice of a woman.

"I'm going insane" Yugi said, turning around and closing her eyes. "It's not real, It's not really happening. I'm dreaming."

_ "I'm not going to go away just because you want me to, you know. After all, if I had, who would have saved Tea? You?"_

"You... You were the one that saved Tea" Yugi breathed, turning around and staring at her. "You're the reason I can't remember anything!"

_"I'm also the one that avenged your Grandfather, and the one that made sure that overgrown freak wouldn't bother anybody again."_

"You... Ushio! That's why we found him like that! You did that to him!"

_"Yes."_

"Why? Who are you?" Yugi asked again. She hadn't fail but notice that the person in the mirror seemed to merely ignored any question that she didn't want to answer.

_"Like I said, I'm you, just better, and taller, and better looking"_ she answered with a grin. _"But there is one thing you can do that I couldn't" _she continued, and her gaze grew serious. _"I could have never completed the Millennium Puzzle, you were the only one that could do that, little one."_

"The puzzle. Joey was right! The puzzle is what caused all of this!"

_"Yeah, Joey got it right."_

"But, but, but... What are you? Why are you here? Why were you inside the puzzle?"

_"Boy, you weren't paying attention when Grandpa spoke, weren't you? I was locked inside the Millenium Puzzle, a spirit, meant to wait forever until somebody came and released it. You released me, so I granted you one wish. You wanted to have the power to protect your friends, didn't you?"_

"I... I did" Yugi truthfully responded. "Do you live inside the puzzle?"

_"Where else?"_

"I can't believe this" Yugi breathed as she sat down in her bed. Her reflection did the same, but the amused grin and stare remained. "This is unreal... Why can't I remember anything? Are you...possessing me?" she asked, her skin trembling as she pronounced the word.

_"Oh, don't sound so disgusted by it. It's only when you really want me to."_

"When I want you to?"

_"Yes, I only do it when it's necessary, other than that, I'm happy staying in my home, thank you."_

"You mean the puzzle... What's your name? Who are you? How did you get locked in the puzzle?"

_"I did not get locked in the puzzle, child! The fact is that I'm here because of my own free will."_

"You want to be in the puzzle? But how did you get there?"

Her reflection remained silent for a moment and the amused grin and look vanished, replaced by a pensive face.

_"I don't know. I don't remember."_

"What do you mean you don't remember?"

_ "That's exactly what I mean, I don't know anything before waking up last week, when you completed the puzzle and set me free. I don't know my name, I don't know who I am. Maybe, what I did to place myself in the puzzle had the side effect of erasing my memories, I don't know."_

"You don't remember anything? Nothing at all before waking up?"

_"I know I'm a spirit" _her reflection said, as calmly as if she had told her what time it was. _"This means that my body must be dead. Beside, Grandpa said the Puzzle is 5,000 years old, so I must surely be dead. That's about as much as I remember. Well, I also know how to use Shadow Magic, but that's as easy as breathing for me."_

"Wait Shadow Magic? You can use Shadow Magic?"

_"Of course, how else how I have given ushio the illusion of Greed? Or saving Tea?"_

"What did you do to them? What did you do to Kaiba?"

_"I simply mmm... How to explain... Well, let me show you" _she said. Her reflection pointed a finger at Yugi, and muttered something under her breath. Yugi's breath caught in her throat. She wanted to run away, she didn't want to get hurt like those other people had gotten hurt. Joey was right, this thing was dangerous! She had to leave! But her legs refused to obey her, her arms didn't cover her face like she wanted to, her scream never left her throat.

00

Yugi opened her eyes, only to find that she could see nothing. Complete and utter darkness surrounded her. It wasn't night, because even at night she could see tiny silhouettes around her, or the soft glow of the street lights. She couldn't see anything. She lifted her hands and touched her face, gingerly touching her eyelids. She had her eyes, she could open and close them, but she could see nothing else. After what felt like hours, a tiny little red ball rolled to her feet.

"This is what I did to them" she spoke. Yugi turned around, and found her reflection walking towards her. "Unlike you, their hearts were filled with evil, and the sins they committed would haunt them in this place, until they learned from their mistakes. Then they would travel to this room" she said. She vanished from Yugi's sight and appeared behind her. Yugi again turned around and followed her blindly. They soon came to a door, and her reflection opened it. They both entered it and she closed the door.

Inside Yugi found a puzzle on the ground. She could tell it was a rectangular puzzle.

"What is this?"

"It's your heart" she said, walking next to the puzzle and sitting next to it. "I used Mind Crush on you. It's usually a penalty game, but you wanted to know what Kaiba and that man in the shop went through."

"A penalty game?"

"Reserved only as a punishment for those that break one of the rules of a Shadow Game. Penalty Games are meant to reveal a person's greatest weakest, their greatest fear, and torture them endlessly with them. They only stop when the person has acknowledged the evil in their hearts and decided to cast it away and ask for forgiveness. At that time, the person comes into this room and is given the chance to rebuild their heart."

"Rebuild their heart?"

"Usually, it is very difficult for a person to rebuild their hearts, for the wicked pieces are mixed with the good pieces. A person needs to look deep into their self and understand themselves before they can even try to finish this puzzle. For each person the puzzle is different, for you, it was this."

"What is it?" Yugi asked, kneeling down and grabbing a piece.

"You find out. You have no evil in your heart Yugi, rebuilding your heart will be extremely easy for you, for you are pure to your very core. I'll see you when you're done."

And with that, she vanished, leaving Yugi alone. Without a second of hesitation she grabbed the first piece and placed it next to a corner, and very quickly she began placing piece after piece, quickly figuring out the way she had to finish the puzzle. It was easy really, all the pieces fit, she didn't make a single mistake, it was just like the time she had finished the Millennium Puzzle. Before she knew it, the puzzle was completed, and it was what she had thought.

"Dark Magician" she whispered. The Dark Magician was holding his staff with his right hand, pointing directly at her. With his left hand he was holding a spell book. He looked ready to cast a very powerful spell. His purple robes were gleaming with light she did not know where it came from, and his eyes shone with confidence. She felt safe just looking at him. She felt as if all the evil in the world couldn't touch her.

"That's what they feel when they're done" she said, and Yugi stood up.

"It feels good... It feels right."

"Yes, Yugi... it does."

"But... he didn't get the chance to finish it, did he?"

Yugi turned around and looked at her reflection in the eye. She didn't flinch, or try to pretend she hadn't heard what Yugi had said. They both knew who Yugi was talking about.

"No, he never even got to this room."

"You killed him."

"Yes."

"Why did you kill him?"

"What would have prefered I did? Plead with him like you had done? That would have only gotten all of you killed, and I would have ended up in the hands of that disgusting man."

"You didn't have to kill him."

"True, I didn't have to" she admitted. "But I felt it was the safest course of action. And I still think it was."

"Take me back, please."

"... Fine."

00

Yugi woke up on the floor, feeling like a passed out drunk. Her head was throbbing, and her legs felt wobbly, but she somehow managed to get back to her bed. Had she imagined all of that?

_"No, you didn't"_ she said, and Yugi sighed. So it was all real.

"Do you remember your name? I need something to call you, don't you think?"

Her reflection crossed her legs and looked up at the ceiling. She looked trapped in a trance, thinking deeply until it seemed like she got. Her usual grin returned and she looked back at Yugi.

_"Call me Yami"_ she said.

"Yami."

_"Yeah, Yami Yugi."_

"Well Yami, thank you for saving me and my friends. Even if I don't agree with what you did. I... Thank you. If you hadn't been there... I probably wouldn't be here."

Yami stood up from the bed and grinned at her again. She gave her a thumbs up and slowly vanished, disappearing back into the Millennium Puzzle.

00

Joey, Yugi, and Tea were standing behind the schoolyard, as away from prying eyes as they could get while inside the school. They retreated as far as possible and headed to the very back of the building. From there they were far enough from the playing grounds to not be seen and too close to the main building itself to not be seen from the windows, she could show them there.

"Alright, I need you guys to promise me not to run away or tell anybody about this, I just found out about this and it's still a little hard for me to deal with okay?"

"Of course Yugi, We're your friends, you don't need to worry about that" Joey told her without hesitation.

"Yeah, Yugi" Tea said, giving her a warm smile. "I'm not going anywhere. I swear."

"Thank you guys... Ok, here goes."

Yugi closed her eyes and calmed her wrecking nerves, she pushed all other thoughts she had outside and focused on calling the spirit within the puzzle.

_"Yami... Yami?"_

_ "I'm here."_

_ "Do you think... Could you show them?"_

_ "I'm not a toy to be used for your amusement, Yugi!" _she angrily snapped at her. Yugi cringed and was about to ask for forgiveness when she heard a small chuckled inside of her. _"I'm joking. It's fine, I'll show them. Just relax, you won't feel a thing."_

_ "Okay."_

00

Tea's eyes went wide and her mouth gaped open. The Millenium Puzzle started shaking by itself, slowly rattling harder and harder until the chains were banging and clunking against each other. A tiny golden light appeared in the middle of the eye, and before Tea could ask Yugi what she was doing the light exploded into a tiny sun, blinding both of them and forcing them to take a step back.

"Yugi! What's going on? Are you alright?" Joey called to his friend, but she didn't answer. It wasn't until the light died down when they finally got an answer.

"Yugi's fine, Joey, no need to worry about her" a firm, strong voice told them, and Joey and Tea both looked in the direction of the voice.

Where their friend Yugi once had stood, there was now a very different girl. Her face and body was extremely similar, but the changes were very noticeable. Her facial features were more pronounced, her hair was sticking out in all directions, and she seemed taller, almost like an aged version of Yugi. Her breasts were somewhat larger, and her legs longer. The socks that had once reached her thighs now barely covered her knees, and the black choker seemed to struggle a little more against her slightly thicker neck, but if she was seen by somebody that didn't pay much attention, she would pass just like their friend.

"Yugi?"

"You could call me that, Tea" she said with a grin in her face. "But Yugi and I agreed on the name, Yami. Suits me better doesn't it?"

"I... I can't believe it" Joey breathed. "It's just like when you dueled Kaiba! Just like in Burger World... What happened?"

"Yugi solved the Millennium Puzzle" Yami told them as she looked around them, exploring everything with her eyes. She knelt down and grabbed a piece of grass, quickly ripping it off the ground and standing back up. She smelled it, looked at it and threw it into the wind before returning her attention to her friends. "The puzzle grants a wish to whoever completes it."

"A wish... I can't believe it" Tea mumbled. "When Yugi told me about that I thought she was exaggerating, that it was just a children's story or something like that."

"Well, I'm hardly a children's story, am I?"

00

"Sir! We just received word from Domino city. The undefeated champion, Miss Kaiba, was defeated in a duel last week!"

"Defeated you say? Why didn't I find out about this sooner?"

"I'm sorry sir, but the duel wasn't official, we didn't find out until the weekly memory wipe of the dueling arenas. The arena registered a loss, and when our technician went to check, it registered Miss Kaiba's loss."

"Interesting, bring me the dueling records, I want to see how our little Kaiba girl was defeated."

"Yes, sir."

00

"Come on, I think Grandpa's in the kitchen" Yugi said as she closed the door to the store. Joey and Tea walked through the story, looking at the huge number of toys and games that the Muto family had for sale. "Grandpa! We're home!"

"Oh, Yugi!" he called her from the kitchen. "You got a delivery!"

"A delivery? That's weird" she mumbled, signalling Joey and Tea to go up to her room. The box was on the table, it was big, but it wasn't very heavy. She brought it upstairs and with Joey's help opened it. Like she thought, the inside was mostly filled with bubble wrap, which Joey immediately began to pop while Tea and Yugi investigated the contents. The box had a purple glove with indentations on it, aside from that there was a tiny video tape and a small plastic box with two stars inside of it. "What is that?"

"Weird, it's from Industrial Illusions" Tea pointed out.

"That's the company that makes the Duel Monsters cards!"

"No way" Joey butted in. "Let's play the video, maybe it explains what this is for."

"Alright."

Yugi pushed the video tape into the reader, thinking hard.

"What is it?"

"This type of video is really old. It was back when they tried compressing video tapes to save space. When DVD's came out they completely stopped making these."

"Yeah, I hadn't noticed that, why would they send you this? I mean, what are the odds that you could even watch it?"

"That's what bothers me" Yugi told her friends. "Industrial Illusions has a lot of money, why send an old video tape? How could they even know I would be able to play it?"

"Never mind about that, Yugi. Let's just watch the tape, I'm sure it explains everything" Joey assured her as he pressed play. The screen went blank for a few seconds before it was replaced by a scene Yugi recognized right away.

"My Grandpa's deck has no pathetic cards, Kaiba. But it does have... Exodia the Forbidden One!"

"This is Yugi's fight with Kaiba" Joey breathed.

"Who recorded this?"

"I'm the champion, why did I lose?" Kaiba complained. The angle wasn't perfect, but they could hear just fine.

"You still don't know why you lost, Kaiba? Fine, I'll help you see why you lost! Face yourself, and maybe afterwards you will finally understand!" The Yugi in the screen said, and Joey cringed, here it came. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't like it whenever Yugi, well, whenever the other Yugi yelled that. "MIND CRUSH!"

The scene flickered a few times before it was replaced by the face of a long haired man. He had long silver hair that covered his left eye, and from what she could see, he was wearing a very fancy outfit. She could only see from his chest up, but it looked expensive nonetheless.

"Oh, Bravo! What an outstanding victory!" he said, clapping in delight. "Oh, my little Yugi Girl, that was quite a stunt you pulled off! To defeat the undefeated, that is not something seen every day!"

"Who is this guy?"

Joey, Tea and Yugi were so focused on the screen they didn't notice Solomon Muto sitting up next to Yugi and looking at the screen with great interest.

"Oh, but where are my manners?" he continued with exaggerated regret. "My name is Pegasus, Maximillion Pegasus, at your service."

"Pegasus!"

"The creator of Duel Monsters! I can't believe it, it's the first time I've ever seen his face!" Solomon exclaimed, and even Yugi was surprised by this.

"Let's get down to business, shall we?" Pegasus said, and the four of them fell silent. It was like he knew when they were speaking and when they would be quiet. "I want to test your skills. Yes, I know you defeated Kaiba, and what a duel that was, but I want to test them personally. I challenge you, Yugi Muto, to duel me."

"He can't be serious" Yugi breathed as she unconsciously clutched her deck. This one didn't even have Exodia. The thought very briefly passed through her mind before a voice shut her up.

_"I don't need Exodia to win, Yugi."_

"What do you say? Would you like to duel me? Oh, I can't understand your trepidation, fighting the creator of the game, I do have an unfair advantage, so what say I start with 2000 life points? That should even the playing field, right?"

"What is he talking about? A duel? How? When?" Yugi asked her friends, but nobody answered her.

"They can't answer you, Yugi Girl. It's just you and me now" Pegasus said, holding a deck of cards.

"What?" Yugi turned around and looked at Joey. He wasn't moving, he wasn't breathing, he was staring at the TV screen. He looked petrified. "Joey! Tea! What's going on?"

"Oh hush, little girl. I say it's time we had out duel, don't you think? Tell me, what deck will you use, your own deck? or maybe your Grandfather's deck? The one that contains the invincible Exodia?"

"You're talking to me" Yugi mumbled. "You're talking directly to me. But how?"

"I don't have endless patience, my little girl. Pick your deck and let's play."

Without answering, and with eyes as wide as plates, Yugi grabbed her deck, shuffled it and placed it face down. She was silent as she watched Pegasus draw a card and add it to his hand.

"I'll place one card face down and end my turn" Pegasus announced.

Yugi drew a card and looked down at her hand.

"I summon... Breaker, the Magical Warrior in attack position" she announced, feeling incredibly foolish. She was talking to a TV! "Then, I'll remove one spell counter on Breaker to destroy one spell or trap card on the field."

"Nice way to start" Pegasus said, grabbing his face down card and turning it around. "But I'll activate my face down card in response. Waboku."

"I... I activate Magical Citadel of Endymion" Yugi announced, feeling a little less foolish but even more scared. She began to sweat and her hands were shaking slightly. "Then I activate Arcane Barrier, giving my Citadel 1 Spell Counter. Then I'll place two cards face down and end my turn."

"Solid first move, Yugi. I draw... I'll play card destruction. I didn't like that particular hand" Pegasus told her as he drew five more cards. Yugi grabbed one card from her deck. Perfect.

"I activate Pitch-Black Power Stone" she said, flipping her trap card over.

"Oh nice. You got quite a nice plan going on. Heavy Storm" Pegasus said, grinning at Yugi.

"I activate Miracle Restoring" Yugi said, flipping the trap card over. "I'll remove two counters from my Power Stone to special summon my Dark Magician from my graveyard."

Pegasus calmly placed heavy storm in the graveyard and smiled at Yugi.

"Change of Heart" he declared, and Yugi cursed under her breath, of course. How could she give her Dark Magician to him? He was a damn TV! "Be a dear and just place him in your graveyard, I'll tribute him to summon my Dark Red Enchanter."

"I've never seen that card" Yugi breathed.

"Oh, I'll explain what he does quickly. When my enchanter is Normal Summoned I can place two Spell counters on him. His attack increases by 300 for each Spell counter he has. Just like most of your cards, every time a spell card is activated, he gains an extra counter. Finally, I can remove two counters to make my opponent discard 2 cards. I'll activate Graceful Charity" Pegasus told her.

2600. Pegasus discarded two cards.

"He's so strong."

"I activate Spell Power Grasp. With this Spell card I can place an extra counter on any card on the field, so I'll place it on my Enchanter, and by his own effect her gets another counter, which bring the total to 3200 attack points. Then I can bring another Spell Power Grasp from my deck to my hand. After that I'll activate Pot of Greed."

Pegasus drew two cards, grinning broadly.

"I can't believe this, how many spell cards does he have?" Yugi complained, unable to do anything else. She looked down at her Breaker card, patiently waiting to be destroyed by his monster.

"Now, I'll activate the spell card Mage Power, this brings my Enchanters attack points to 4300, and finally, I'll activate my own Arcane Barrier. This gives another counter to my enchanter and increases his attack and defense by an extra 500 points thanks to Mage Power, which means he has 4800 attack points. Now, I think I have done enough for my first turn. Your move Yugi-Girl."

_"He wants to shame you!"_ Yami said, and Yugi cringed.

_"I know"_ she answered. _"But maybe I'll be able to do something to defend myself."_

_ "Don't forget he still has another Spell Power Grasp on his hand, which means the next turn his Dark Red Enchanter is going to gain at least 600 extra attack points. If he draws another continuous Spell card, you're looking at a quick kill."_

_ "I know"_ Yugi answered as she drew. "I activate Card of Sanctity!"

Pegasus and Yugi both quietly drew cards until they both had 6 cards in their hand.

"Since my monster Watapon was added to my hand by a card effect, I can special summon him in face up defense position."

"Alright... I normal summon Frequency Magician! Since I have a level two and a level four monster I can Synchro Summon my Tempest Magician! And now, I'll remove all the Spell counters on the field to inflict 500 points of damage to you for each counter removed! Which means I win!"

"Actually no, my dear Yugi-Girl" Pegasus told her. "I'll discard the little Hanewata from my hand, making all effect damage that I take this turn 0."

"Damn it... I had him... Then I'll activate polymerization! I'll send my Tempest Magician and another Spellcaster from my hand to Fusion Summon My Supreme Arcanite Magician! Thanks to his effect, my Magician has two Spell counters, and for each counter he increases his attack power by 1000 points!"

"Very nice Yugi."

"Now I'll attack your Dark Red Enchanter with my Magician! You lose 400 life points Pegasus."

"Again... no, Yugi-Girl. I'll discard Kuriboh from my hand to negate your attack."

"Fine, I'll end my battle phase and I'll activate the Spell card Monster Reborn! I'll bring back my Dark Magician and since I now control a face up Dark Magician I activate my spell card, Dark Magic Attack!"

"And since you destroyed all my Spell cards, my Enchanter's attack pummels back down to 2600."

"But he won't stay on the field for long. I'll remove one counter from my Magician to target one card on the field and destroy it, and I'll destroy your Enchanter!"

"Very nice move Yugi, now only little Watapon seems to be defending me against your ferocious monsters. What a move! But alas, it seems that even your best efforts were wasted. Shall I draw?"

"I... Yes, I end my turn."

"Then I'll activate my Spell Card, Final Destiny" Pegasus said. "I'll send five cards from my hand to destroy all cards on the field."

"I can't believe it" Yugi complained as she placed all her cards in the graveyard.

"Now, I have no cards in my hand nor on my field, so I'll end my turn."

Yugi drew her card and began to think. What could she do? Pegasus only had 2000 life points, certainly she could deal that much damage? She had nothing to lose.

"I summon the skilled Dark Magician in attack position and attack your life points directly!" Yugi told Pegasus, sure that this time she would be able to attack him. To her surprise, her card began to glow, and she looked down, perplexed. "What?"

A bright white glow came from her card, and the Skilled Dark Magician came out of it. He was half a meter tall, a miniature, but how could this be?

_"Yugi. I know what's going on. Pegasus is using Shadow Magic!"_

_ "Shadow Magic? How?"_

_ "I don't know"_ Yami admitted. "B_ut I can recognize it. Let me finish this, I'll take Pegasus down."_

_"Alright, good luck."_

Her millenium Puzzle glowed brightly and shook again, and in an instant Yugi felt how she was transported back into the puzzle, while Yami took control of her body.

"Alright Pegasus, I believe we were in the middle of something? Skilled Dark Magician, attack his life points directly!"

Yugi's wizard floated directly in front of the T.V screen and shot a short burst of power at it. The black magical ball was somehow sucked in front of the T.V, where it seemed to travel an extremely long distance before it finally collided against Pegasus' face, making him flinch in pain.

"My turn, Yugi girl?" he asked as he combed his hair into position.

"Yes."

"Fine then. I'll place one monster in defense position and end my turn."

"I draw! I'll sacrifice my Magician to Summon the Dark Magician Girl! And since I have a Dark Magician in the graveyard her attack is 2300. Dark Magician Girl, attack his face down monster!"

Her monster rose from her card just like the first one and launched a huge barrage of energy blasts that collided against the face down card, but when Pegasus turned it over, it was no other than the Big Shield Gardna.

"Tough luck, my little girl. You lose 300 life points."

"I'll place one card face down and end my turn!"

Pegasus grinned as he drew his card.

"I'll tribute my Big Shield Gardna to Summon, Jinzo!"

A huge disgusting machine-like creature exploded from Pegasus' card, and both Yugi's cursed when they realized how it was.

"Now all trap cards are negated" Yugi cursed under her breath.

"That's right, which means you can't destroy my monster with whatever you had planned. And now I'll attack Dark Magician Girl with Jinzo!"

The monster charged energy in one hand, and just like the Dark Magician Girl had done, he flung it through the screen. The energy ball went right through the screen and hit her head on, almost ripping her head off and making her monster scream in pain. The explosion reached Yugi, and she could feel the electric current running through her body.

"What? I can't believe this. I felt everything."

"Ha, ha, ha, ha! My dearest Yugi-Girl, certainly you aren't surprised? Why I was certain that you would be familiar to the power of the Shadow Realm by now!"

"Shadow Realm? How did you take us to the Shadow Realm, Pegasus?"

"I'll explain later. Say, why don't we make this interesting? Let's make a little bet."

"A bet?"

"Yes, I bet that I will win, I bet that I will defeat you."

"And what would you bet?"

"I'll bet my life" he said with the same amused smile that his face always had.

"What? You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am. If I lose, I will give you my life, and if you lose... you'll have to give me a life."

"What? There's no way I'll ever agree to those terms!"

"Oh, but you have no choice, you see we're playing a Shadow Game, and you know as well as I do, that the loser has to face a Penalty Game."

"You seem to know a whole lot about Shadow Magic, Pegasus, would you mind telling me, exactly how you know so much?"

"Now, now, don't get distracted, Yugi. It's your turn."

Yugi cursed the man again as she drew a card. A spell card, one that was useless unless she found a way to get rid of Jinzo. She angrily placed it face down and gestured Pegasus to draw. He did, but unlike Yugi he kept the card on his hand. Without a word, Jinzo charged another attack and flung it straight at Yugi. She tried to cover herself with her arms, but the energy ball hurt even more than the first one, and she let out a small grunt of pain.

"Damn it."

"Well, by my calculations, I believe you are down to 6200 life points, while I have 100. Come on, Yugi, truly you can defeat me! I only have 100 points left!"

"I will beat you Pegasus! You just watch!"

Unfortunately, the card Yugi drew was not the card she needed, and she placed the monster in defense position.

"I'll summon the Silent Magician LV4 in Attack Position and attack your monster with Jinzo" Pegasus said in a bored tone, without even looking at her. Jinzo charged another energy ball that quickly obliterated her monster, and the Silent Magician attacked her without a word. "I'll end my turn."

"I'll play another monster in defense position and end my turn."

"Really Yugi, I expected more."

The turns kept coming, and with every turn, Yugi's life points came closer to zero. Her frustration was building, what could she do? She had the perfect counter attack, but no way to use it!

"My turn."

"Since you have drawn a card, my Silent Magician is now up to 2500 Attack points! Well that, little fella grows quickly, doesn't he?"

_"2500 attack points! That's it!"_ she realized. "I activate my Spell card, Fissure! Since your Silent Magician has 2500 attack points, that means Jinzo is the weakest monster on your side of the field! And since Jinzo is gone I can activate my trap card! Call of the hunted! I bring Back the Dark Magician Girl! Now I'll activate Sage Stone!" she was almost screaming, the excitement was building up in her, she was going to do it, she was going to beat Pegasus! "Now I can summon the Dark Magician in attack mode! Dark Magician, attack his Silent Magician!"

The two Spellcasters locked eyes and began casting spell after spell, every dark blow of black magic that Yugi's Dark Magician would fire was repelled by the little wizard, and every white ball of light he fired was shot back at him or dodged. The two wizards kept fighting for a couple of seconds, until they both flew forward and they fired their most powerful attack. The Dark magician's staff glowed with dark light as he charged all his energy in one blow, and the tiny Silent Magician charged bravely to meet him. The two collided and an explosion of light and dark filled the room Yugi was in, sending her flying back. She didn't hit herself to bad, and she was quickly on her feet.

_"You did it! He's open!"_

"Dark Magician Girl! Attack!" Yugi screamed, unable to contain her enthusiasm any longer. The energy from the blast had not dissipated, and she couldn't see very well, but it didn't matter, her Dark Magician Girl would finish the job. Pegasus was done for.

"So close, Yugi-Girl. So very close" Pegasus voice came from the screen.

"What?"

"If only you had payed attention. Why don't you take a look at your Dark Magician Girl?"

Yugi took a step towards the screen and gasped when she saw what had happened. The Dark Magician Girl's staff was brightly glowing, her attack was ready to be fired, but her aim was shaky, her entire arm was shaking, no wait... Her entire body was shaking! Why? The answer came a moment later, when the dust dissipated. The Silent Magician had fired an energy blast at her, and her entire back was scorched from it.

"It can't be! I destroyed him!"

"Like I said, Yugi-Girl. If only you had payed attention you would have noticed I played the quick play spell card, Ego Boost, which increases my monster's attack for 1000 points for the remainder of the battle phase."

"No, it can't be!"

"Which means you lost 1000 life points when your Dark Magician attacked, and and extra 1500 life points when your Dark Magician Girl attacked... You lose Yugi-Girl."

"Damn it... I... I lost."

"And that means you have to face a Penalty Game" Pegasus said as he combed his long hair behind his ear, revealing a golden eye were his left eye should be. Pegasus didn't move for a moment, allowing Yugi to understand what was about to happen. "It was a most entertaining duel, Yugi-Girl. And I would like to duel you again. I'm holding a tournament, the instructions are in the box, under the glove. You and a couple of selected other duelists will come to duelist island, where you will fight each other. The winner will get the chance to fight me, in an event that will change the way we see duel monsters!"

"A tournament... I have no desire to enter in whatever tournament you have planned, Pegasus! Not until you tell me how you know so much about Shadow Magic."

"Oh, Yugi-Girl. You drive a hard bargain. So here's my counter offer" Pegasus replied. He held a blank card, and his golden Eye gleamed like a sun, blinding Yugi and forcing her to cover her eyes. She wasn't sure what Pegasus was doing, but she felt something strange in the room, like a strange presence had been summoned.

The light dissipated, and Yugi looked at the screen.

"WHAT?"

"Yugi! Yuuugiii!" her Grandpa screamed inside the screen, slowly fading away.

"Grandpa! What did you do, Pegasus?" she demanded, furiously banging the screen with her tiny fists. "Pegasus! Answer me!"

"Here's the deal, Yugi. You're going to come to duelist island and you're going to fight in my tournament. If you don't how else will you ever see your beloved Grandfather ever again?" Pegasus voice rang through the room, mocking her, taunting her. His laughter stayed with her for long after his presence had vanished, and it wasn't until Tea screamed behind her that she noticed her surroundings. Solomon Muto was thrown in the ground, his eyes completely empty.

"Grandpa!" Yami screamed. She tried to get up and run towards him, but Yugi took over completely and pushed her away, deep inside the puzzle. It didn't take an expert to understand she was mad. Of course she was, she had trusted her to win, and she had lost. She had failed her.

"Grandpa!" Yugi yelled at the top of her lungs, furiously shaking his shoulder. "Grandpa! GRANDPAAAAAA!"


End file.
